The present invention relates to a bottle sorting method and system wherein bottles having different color characteristics, for example indicia markings or shape, may be automatically classified and sorted into groups of similar or identical bottles.
A wide variety of products are bottled by individual manufacturers. For instance, each major soft drink company sells a variety of liquid products under different brand names in returnable bottles. When the emptied bottles are returned by consumers to an appropriate location, such as a retail store, the bottles must be sorted according to particular identifying characteristics before they can be refilled and returned to the consumer market. It can be appreciated that the enormous volume of bottles to be sorted is a major concern in the bottling industry. Sorting by hand is time consuming and costly, and therefore it is desirable to be able to automatically carry out the sorting operation.